


Endgame

by Righ



Series: Endgamers (Shiro/Keith & Adam) [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam Is Not a Bad Guy He Is Just Not The Endgame, Established Keith/Shiro (Voltron), M/M, Season/Series 07, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 22:45:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15672807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Righ/pseuds/Righ
Summary: Adam isn't dead and Keith has Opinions about that.





	Endgame

**Author's Note:**

> I like Adam! However, he may have been Shiro's beginning but I'm fully on board with him never being Shiro's endgame. I'm a filthy Sheith shipper, bye.
> 
> Spoilers for S7, of course.

"They said you died."

The ringing silence in the conference room aboard the Atlas was only broken by the soft huff of an aborted laugh. Adam, standing there in rebel clothes with his old glasses taped up on one side, pushed them up his nose with a gesture so familiar Shiro felt the bottom of his stomach fall out.

"That was what they believed and, to be fair to them, in good faith," said Adam, close enough now that all the freckles on his cheeks (a new scar on his upper lip, a fading bruise on his cheek) stood in sharp relief under the bright lights. _So real_. His smile wavered when he met Shiro's eyes. "The building was fifty storeys, there was no reason to believe I survived when the Galra attacked our outpost. I'm told scanners picked up no life-signs, it was pure chance the rebels found me when they did. They had to set my leg ... but what am I saying? You lost an _arm_ , I'm so sorry. A broken leg isn't much."

Shiro stared. This was where he should offer something up, sympathy or commendations for Adam staying at the outpost so long that he literally went down with it, but he couldn't because his ears thudded with the drumbeat of his heart and it was all he could do to listen and gape. This wasn't the reunion he expected this morning when Coran informed him he had a guest visiting the ship, far more geared into a mindset to receive garrison officials and deal with yet more extra bureaucratic shit. He never dreamed he would be standing opposite his former boyfriend, the sight of whom set all Shiro's emotions into a messy whirlpool of shock, relief, sorrow. ( _Anger_.)

Adam's lips twitched as he squinted up, forcing a light laugh.

"You still with me, Takashi?"

Hearing his given name snapped him out of it, thankfully. Shiro swallowed and ran cybernetic fingers through his hair, not missing the mild wonder in Adam's glance as he followed the move.

"Yeah! Yes, sorry. You just got back today, then?"

"A few hours ago. It took some persuading to let me see you but Iverson and Holt ... helped. I owe them." Adam's eyes lowered as he took a step in, then another and another until he stood directly in front of Shiro, close enough to take his human hand without needing to look. The intelligence in a hazel gaze was unmistakeable, just like the regret there. "I saw your speech. It was really good, surprisingly."

Shiro heard his laugh before he felt doing it, reflexively squeezing Adam's fingers. Drawn to the warmth behind new callouses. 

"I didn't drag it out too long?" asked Shiro. Adam had always teased him about being long-winded. 

"I'd go so far as to say I was almost inspired."

The ship could be heard functioning around them: voices and footsteps pacing outside the door, the soft beep of protocol programs in the walls. Shiro leaned in at the same time to rest their foreheads together, an old habit. Prosthetic fingers slid up Adam's other arm, clutching at fabric to try and anchor himself in the situation, because _What the fuck_. His heart _hurt_.

"You're just the same, Addy."

Adam hummed, a smile on the lips on view beneath Shiro's lowered lashes.

"You're not." He didn't sound disappointed, to Shiro's astonishment. Adam cupped Shiro's jaw to help him meet his eyes, brimming with some unspoken emotion that Shiro couldn't tap into no matter how hard he tried. "I know you're busy but, maybe later, after you're done, we could get something to eat and ... talk."

Shiro was sure it was audible when he swallowed a second extra large lump in his throat. Skin buzzing with electricity wherever they touched, it was a relief to find it took no great effort to straighten and nod. Adam looked bereft as they remained close, as if that small gesture of distance spoke volumes. He had always been better at reading Shiro than anyone else, but that was before Keith came along.

"I'd like that, it's just —"

"Eight o'clock, I'll come find you. This fancy new ship of yours can tell me where you are, right?"

"Yeah," said Shiro, around the interjection, "but before we go into detail, Adam, there's something you really need to know —"

With timing that couldn't be faked, the door to the conference room hissed open to reveal Keith mid-stride, dressed in his Paladin flightsuit and wide-eyed when he caught sight of Shiro and Adam. Immediately, Shiro backed off a step, but the grip on his hand remained where it was and the three of them stared at each other in surprise.

Keith was the first one to recover and move. Obviously well aware of the identity of the mysterious "guest" Coran had helped smuggle aboard against protocols, his violet eyes flattened into flint and he strode inside to place a commanding hand on Shiro's prosthetic, all but pulling it away from Adam who fell back a step. Shiro felt the hold on his real hand finally ease, then let go. Keith stood his ground like a Galra protecting their mate, which was admittedly an attractive yet hilarious discussion to have much, much later and make fun of, but in the moment Shiro felt his cheeks turn red and an intense wave of hot secondhand embarrassment for Adam, who was stuttering out a greeting.

"K-Keith, hi! It's been so long, you've really grown up ..."

"Shiro is with _me_ now," said Keith, in no uncertain terms. He wasn't in the least ruffled, only determined to set straight any records that had been playing prior to his arrival.

Shiro could have sworn the thermo-readings in his arm recorded the temperature in the room plummeting several degrees.

"If you don't like it," Keith went on, chin high and shoulders set, and _God,_ Shiro wanted to simultaneously swoon and smack him upside the back of his head, "then you can deal with it on your own time. I didn't come here to lose him to you. I _won't_."

" _Keith_!"

Shiro got a Look that said _I'll Fight You Too_ and he hurried to hold a hand out in a peaceful gesture between them, but Adam spoke up first.

"I can't tell if the kid's serious or not. Takashi?"

"I'm not a kid!"

"You were when Takashi and I were a couple."

"You're living in the past!"

"Alright! Everyone just _calm down_ ," said Shiro loudly, fixing Keith with a Look of his own that only went part of the way to preemptively settling an argument. "Keith, will you please _relax_? I was about to tell him. Adam," he looked over, a frown awaiting him, "Keith and I, we — we're together."

Adam's jaw set, glancing between Shiro's pleading, apologetic face and Keith's narrowed scowl. His reply threw both of them for a loop and only fanned the flames Shiro had tried to stomp out moments before as Keith snapped on the heels of Adam's question.

"Dinner at eight, should I assume it's still on?"

" _What_!"

Shiro blinked. "Uh, yes."

"Good, I'll see you then. We have a lot to discuss. Keith, I wish I could say it was a pleasure."

Adam shot Shiro a warning look as he made a sharp exit that he couldn't be faulted for. Shiro shied away, left in the room with Keith who folded his arms and glared.

" _Tell me_ exactly what was going on when I walked into this room!"

Shiro sighed.

 

*

 

After spending the better part of his day absent from the bridge and reassuring Keith he wasn't going to go flying off into the sunset with his ex, they lay on Shiro's bed in the captain's quarters with Keith on his back and Shiro splayed over a firm chest, cheek on Keith's shoulder. Soothing caresses swept slowly through his snowy locks, tangled from being fisted in the heat of the moment earlier.

"He still loves you."

"Keith, please." On Shiro's list of Top Ten Things he didn't feel good overanalysing, today had obliterated the rest of that list. "We've been over this, it doesn't make a difference because I'm with _you_. Stop worrying."

Keith did exactly that for around five seconds, then followed up with a grumble of, "Don't let him touch you like that again."

"Okay, now you're just being silly."

Keith huffed so hard Shiro had to raise his head off his chest, "I'm serious! He looked like he was going to — to kiss you. What if he _had_?"

"Then I would have told him I have a crazy boyfriend who fantasizes about dropkicking my exes in the face with a bayard."

"You're not wrong."

Shiro coaxed Keith to look at him, cupping the back of his head as Shiro shuffled up onto a bent arm. 

"I love _you_." Tension finally seeped out from Keith's shoulders and Shiro bent down for a lingering kiss, nuzzling the scar on a cheek. His tone softened, intimate in a way he wasn't outside the confines of their bedroom. "Sweetheart, you have _nothing_ to be afraid of. I'm going to meet up with him for dinner because we actually _do_ have a lot to talk about, but don't spend all your time concerned about what I want from him. Okay? Trust me. Everything I need is right here."

Keith hummed, fingertips tracing Shiro's scar and gliding through shorn white hair at a temple. Guilt gnawed the edges of his frown, seeking solace. He somehow seemed to shrink in Shiro's arms.

"When Coran told me that Adam was alive and on the ship, I panicked. I remembered all the times I'd seen you together back then. You were so close."

"We were," Shiro didn't miss a beat as Keith's eyes widened with fear, " _but_ , we were also two selfish teenagers who hurt each other a lot. There was so much between me and Adam that you _didn't_ see, Keith. He was my first real partner just like I was his, we were trying to grow up too fast."

"You were in love with him, I know you were."

"I was, but he also broke my heart." 

Shiro tilted his head, playing with a lock of Keith's hair around a robotic knuckle. He allowed Keith to push him back and sit on top of him, wrapped up in Keith's arms that trapped Shiro so he couldn't escape the conversation, the sneak, not that Shiro wanted to leave anyway or called him out for it. Keith's displays of possessiveness were always rooted in an emotional outlet.

"I figured you broke up over Kerberos, you told me you fought and then he didn't come to the launch."

Something old and weathered in a corner of Shiro's heart ached. He had been on the comm listening for Adam's voice while strapped into the ship, the seconds ticking down before liftoff with no one there but a much younger Keith on the line. 

"I remember. Even so, Adam _was_ a good boyfriend, I want to make that clear. He was supportive in his own way," said Shiro, hindsight being twenty-twenty. "It was just ... _his way_ would have been a domestic life away from any kind of danger until I withered and physically _couldn't_ follow my dreams. He gave me an ultimatum, Keith, him or the mission. I chose the mission. I think he thought it made a statement about how I wasn't living my best life by staying with him, but by shooting myself into space, as far away as possible, I could. He had a right to be angry with me, all he wanted to do was keep me safe."

"No!"

"Keith, what —?" Surprised by the outburst when trying to draw a parallel that would hopefully stop Keith hating Adam, Shiro blinked. He was interrupted.

" _No_ , Takashi," Keith repeated, the stern scowl he wore the same one as when he made up his mind and wouldn't be convinced otherwise. "You told me you only had a couple of years to live life the way you wanted, you weren't given a choice about that. Taking _any_ time away from you was selfish and cruel, Adam has no right to back you into a corner like that! And that _isn't_ how taking care of someone works, all he wanted to do was keep you from living life to the fullest."

"So I could live longer, Keith."

"But that wouldn't have actually been _living_."

That struck a chord. It was exactly how Shiro had felt at the time, unwilling to be tethered to the dirt for so long that he missed his chance to fly. Keith knew he was right. Shiro rubbed his eyes.

"Adam was hurting too, he's a good person."

"I don't care!" Pushing Shiro back into the pillows, Keith stole a kiss that was as wet and filthy as it was passionate, lips and tongue slicking together to draw a moan out of Shiro before Keith withdrew, raking his nails through white hair. He was so fierce with his opinions, Shiro loved seeing him so riled up, a little breathless from the thunderstorm of Keith's temper and how earnest he was about protecting him. "He let you go without saying goodbye when you were going into _space_ , Takashi. Even _I_ think that's cold. Now he wanders back into your life and thinks you're fucking a doe-eyed kid you helped raise? _Fuck him._ I may not know what things were like between the two of you but he sure as hell doesn't have a clue about _us_. How many times have we saved each other? I can't do this, _any_ of this, without you. One day I'm going to marry you, so Adam can suck it up or know what it feels like to get stamped on by a lion."

One thing registered as Shiro stared up throughout Keith's impassioned rant, lips parting.

"You want to marry me?"

Keith rolled his eyes to try and downplay a blush, combing back Shiro's hair. He settled more comfortably between his legs, a thigh pressing up in between. 

"Let me think about that. _Hmm_ , no! I'm going to dump you and tell all the lions not to speak to you anymore."

Keith yelped as Shiro swatted his ass. They met in a kiss mutually adoring, hands carding through hair and down already aching bodies, cooled sweat making the groping much easier. When they came up for air, Shiro was radiating a smile. 

"Does this mean we're en—?"

"No! I mean, _yes_? If you want to, um, agree to be. I have an idea for how I want to ask you and it doesn't involve come-stained sheets, though, so this isn't official yet."

Shiro laughed, dreamily hooked on the revelation that not only did Keith want to marry him ( _ohgodohgod_ ) but he had also considered how to propose. 

"I bet you want to use Black for it," Shiro teased, nuzzling contentedly under Keith's jaw.

Keith sagged in defeat, unoriginal and absolutely perfect in Shiro's arms.

"You're not going to get _any_ husbands at this rate."

 

*

 

Adam sat across from him with a carefully schooled air of impassivity, which Shiro knew from experience to mean he was trying exceptionally hard not to show his feelings. He chewed the inside of his lower lip, finally raising his attention from the uneaten salads between them. The cafeteria on the Atlas was relatively abandoned at this time of night and they were seated by a window in pseudo-privacy. Adam had spent his day reading Shiro's debriefing that had been submitted to the official garrison records and now he looked like he wished he hadn't. Frankly, Shiro was surprised he had survived through it all.

"I admit that I came here hoping to sweep you off your feet and make up for past mistakes. I know that guilt drove those intentions, although there was also love behind them. I've _always_ loved you, Takashi."

Shiro's smile was small but warm.

"I know. I'll always be here for you, Adam, no matter what, but ..."

"But you're dating Keith, who was _fifteen_ when you met him."

The judgement in Adam's tone cooled Shiro's eagerness to play nice and he took Keith's suggestion to heart. Not unkindly but in no uncertain terms, he corrected him.

"Keith isn't a child. If his age is bothering you then you should know he spent two years on an interdimensional space-whale so he's ahead of how old he _should_ be, and I'm wearing the body of my evil clone because I died in my original and had my consciousness stuffed in a magical robotic lion for a year. We've both been through more than you can imagine. We're both a lot older in every way. Actually, he's twenty-one and this is the reconstructed body of my twenty-five-year-old self, so ..."

"Yes, I — I realise that. I just meant ... "

"Adam, I respect your right to an opinion on me and Keith but don't ever think I want to hear it."

Releasing a breath after a moment, Adam sagged on the arm of his chair, raking Shiro with his eyes like a class assessment he was failing.

"You really have changed. I don't remember you being this outspoken, you always tried to end our quarrels by sitting in silence."

"Does it bother you?"

"No," said Adam, sitting forward. "It ... suits you. The disease is gone as well, I read that."

"The one who cloned my body made it stronger. I guess she didn't figure out what was wrong until after she cut off the weakest limb."

The tick of a chronometer on the wall filled in the silence. Shiro looked over the table, also done pretending either of them was there to eat.

"I'm really glad to have you back, Adam. Everything else aside, it was thinking of you and Keith that kept me alive when I was captured by the Galra. I thought I'd never see you again."

"I missed you so much." Adam took a breath, letting it out in one long sigh. "I'm sorry, Takashi, sorry that I was so hard on you and never said goodbye. I've never regretted anything more and that was before they announced the mission's failure ... "

Tactfully, Shiro lowered his eyes as Adam took a timely swig of water. 

"Are you happy with Keith? That's probably a stupid question, isn't it?"

"I love him more than anything in the universe, not to overstate it. So, yes, I love my fiance a great deal."

Adam caught his eye, startled by the casual confession. He swallowed, nodded, and then stood. Shiro got to his feet too and they embraced briefly, a squeeze and a pat on the back the remnants of a relationship long put to rest. Good memories thankfully outweighed the bad.

"I'm staying at the garrison, I'll be seeing you around. Please ask Keith not to go full Paladin-rage on me if we bump into each other."

Shiro shook with silent laughter, easing out of the hug.

"He'll behave."

Adam leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, lingering for a moment that Shiro allowed but made no move to reciprocate. He was relieved when they had some space between them again.

"If you need anything, Adam, day or night, let me know."

With a quiet, sad laugh of his own as he shook his head nostalgically, Adam said, "That used to be my line."

 

*

 

Keith strode over from their bed and threw his arms around Shiro's neck, dragging him down into a kiss that the other Black Paladin was more than happy to indulge. Shiro lifted Keith in his arms and felt long legs wrap eagerly around his waist, only separating from the licking, biting mess of their mouths when they were horizontal on the bed and Keith was prettily flushed beneath him, violet eyes sparkling like galaxies. 

"Welcome home," Keith said, smiling, and Shiro kissed him again.


End file.
